The End of the Night
by Shoysrock
Summary: Batman has gotten older and fills his wounded mind by marrying Batwoman. However The Joker is back from the dead, and murders her...and so begins a reign of fire! Set in my own Batmanverse I am developing. Includes sexual themes and violence.
1. The Smiling Letter

**A/N: Alright…many of my friends know that I'm a Batman-o-holic. Specifically, The Joker and villains in the Batmanverse. **

**Over the past months I have been creating my own Batman universe, it's own histories and such. However I need to write down the ideas and one-shots so I can keep track of it for future comics and art. Any feedback would be nice, so long as you don't outright flame me like a violent fanboy…I do not care how you think that some stuff isn't canon or what…I'm posting this for any feedback or encouragement if anyone wishes to leave any. **

**All this is in development as I go along and figure things out.**

**I am in no way saying that the DC universe of Batman sucks. I'm just doing my own, like Frank Miller and the others have done. **

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**This first part: This chapter is set in the later years of Batman, where he finally marries Batwoman secretly…but before he can go to her apartment for the wedding night The Joker kidnaps her. The Joker at this time was presumed dead for 6 years but he's alive and well apparently, and brutally rapes and tortures Batwoman to death.**

"You know Batsy, good ol' Batsy, you can't do this forever."

Joker laughed as he wrote the note in his handwriting. The giggles ceased as Joker realized how scraggily and almost illegible his handwriting was. He still continued to write anyways.

"Dearest Batman, I know how you're feeling. Though I've not experienced this myself, I know how you feel because I care about how you're feeling. I care about every thing you think and react to when I cause something to happen. And I did do something. You know it."

"I've decided to return your wife to you. If I didn't, who would you think tortured her to death? My oh my, I wouldn't want you barking up the wrong tree. So I've written you a note, darling, so you'll know that I'm very much alive and that it was I who took her away from you."

He paused in his writing, brushing his hair out of his eyes as he wrote.

"Why? Well simply because I can't let you be happy with someone like her. I know you better than anyone else. I can't let you become a different Batman at all! You've changed so much since I left! Why her, why change things so much? I know though that you love her; but I know that you'll love me more now she's gone. Oh I'm sure you will when I'm through with you."

"You don't need her. You don't need that Robin, or Nightwing, or Catwoman for company. You need me. You need me to complete you. Bruce, I'm the one. And we're going to be together again soon."

"Disappointment Batty, disappointment! Joker's unhappy, and you know it! Why else would I murder someone you trust more than others? Yes Bruce, I know who you are. I know you came home to find her not there, the wedding night ruined. She's been gone for a week. No trace. Till now. I am sad I found out who you are but believe me, I won't tell a soul. The public would ruin our fun."

"I don't think you're crying. But you will. I will break you and make you play my game forever. On and on it will go and you will chase me, and then I'll fight back this time. This time, more people will die. You are going to be at the final threshold Batman. This time, the game will finally end. You will be mine, never theirs."

"You're getting old Batman. Let me help you rest those tired bones. And then we'll fight again. Run and run! You'll be my pet rodent! That's what you need! But you always have been my pet. Back in the old days…"

"It's time to restart them again old friend. And now it's even more fun now you lost someone so dear…so precious…"

"But you've got me now."

He paused, licking his ruby lips as he penned with a furious stroke,

_Love,_

_J._

He stood up, holding the long note in his hands, walking over smoothly to the body on another table.

Vikki Vale lay, limp and dead, and wrapped with her Batwoman suit and cape. Her eyes were open, pale with death. Blood dripped from her fingers and body, the many wounds and gashes and burns from fire oozing blood and gore.

With a scowl, The Joker pinned the note to her face, snapping his fingers as a few of his thugs came and lifted up the dead woman, carrying her out the dark warehouse and to the assigned place for Batman to find, and only him.

Joker watched them leave in his chair, lighting up a cigarette to smoke. He shivered and pulled his black jacket about him.

"Oh Brucey, why did you have to marry?" He sighed softly and inhaled. "Batman never loves. Batman loves only fighting. He loves fighting chaos. Batman loves fighting me. Batman loves me."

At this, the man began to laugh.

"Bruce? Are you alright?"

Bruce Wayne didn't respond. He stood, looking at the corpse at the hidden entrance to the Batcave.

Robin went to stand next to him, and then Robin understood why Batman was staring. It was Batwoman.

"Oh…no…"

_They were only married last week…_Tim thought. For a year since The Joker was dead, Bruce and Vikki were getting very close as he finally let her train her skills further…and become Batwoman, his closet aid in the war against crime and the rouge's gallery, what was left of them, in Gotham. Batman was a better man when he was in love, and so was the woman who loved him. Tim knew too soon they would be married, secretly, and then Bruce would no longer be a man of cold; he was a man of ruthless fighting but compassion and filled with more happiness than ever before.

Since she disappeared from her apartment after the wedding, on their own wedding night, he was a lost man.

Now she was found. Dead.

With a note form The Joker.

Tim watched as Bruce motionlessly read the note, standing like a stone statue. Batman stood in the cool early spring breeze of the night. He watched Batman read every single word.

He bent down and listed his wife into his arms, carrying her with a grim expression into the cave. Tim followed, his heart aching at the sight of the mutilated body of his fellow team mate…a fellow leader…fighter…a mother figure to him. Besides Batgirl who seemed more solo than Bat family partner, Batwoman was always there. Vikki was always there…always…

Never more this day.

Batman walked her in the cave. Robin followed, watching him carry her to her chair in front of the main computer. That was where she always sat next to him. Together.

It was there Robin watched Batman, sit and cradle her.

Tim could never truly know what this meant to him. His parents never died so tragically like Bruce. He wasn't rich. He never had as much experience or training as Bruce had. He never had the feelings of never giving in to love. Tim was a teenager after all, he had a girlfriend, he knew what love was. But Bruce never did. And when it finally came, when he fell in love truly and Vikki once again returned to him, all knew his love was true. He loved her. He needed her to be a light to his darkness, a woman fighting besides him with trust, respect, and the willingness to learn and fight. He now had a meaning, and it wasn't a distraction. His wife, his partner in justice. She was another part of him. And now she was gone…

Batman began to softly sob, the echoes of his cries bouncing off the walls. Robin knew he must leave, lest he be witness to a broken bat.

He was back. He was back to the cold man he was. The man devoted to only one thing now, not two. Joker wanted to fill that void now.

Alfred closed the door as Robin walked out, quietly putting the dinner he was going to serve them into the refrigerator for another time.

He knew what had happened. There would no more be happiness in this house ever again.

**A/N: Not bad? Next chapter will be about Catwoman.**

**Remember, this is Bruce Wayne when he's getting old in his late 40's, and he tried to soften up by marrying and training another helper, Batwoman. Course that didn't last long. Bruce can never get happy for long. Otherwise if he was, he'd change his name to something more rainbowy and cheery.**

**Shoys. **


	2. Forbidden Fruit

**A/N: Well I have one reviewer. Not bad!**

**Now we shall introduce another character…**

**--**

Up, up and up. Scrabble. Cling to the wall and she will never fall.

The feline form moved her way up the brick. An old building in Gotham it was, with all the brick holds, pedestals and styled arches it needed to have a burglar climb up its sides in the night and steal away the goods inside.

However, she wasn't specifically looking for jewels as her main purpose. There were other things on her mind as she clambered on a stone shelf.

With her claws extended she began to cut through the old pane of the glass, gently tossing away the large-enough hole for her to the ground way below. Like a cat, she nimbly leaped through, silently rolling to her feet, crouched for the hunt. There, on the pedestal, was the prize necklace she sought.

Spraying a fine mist, she detected the laser alarms easily. There wasn't much, as this piece of expensive adornment wasn't as well known, or even thought of for stealing. It wasn't that expensive.

As she took the necklace into a pocket, crawling on all fours to the window of escape, one would wonder, why waste your effort on such a trifle thing when there could be bigger fish to catch?

Well, it wasn't just the jewelry for this feline.

"Ah, so he came." She purred to herself. "And that Batwoman isn't with him…"

Batman's familiar form stood at the pedestal of the next smaller building. The bat ears upon the cowl stood in the light of the moon, his cloaked form tall, dark, empowering. She sensed however something wrong with him.

The jewelry wasn't that important anyways and she had no immediate need to evade Batman for capture. Her main purpose was to confront that mysterious man in 'conversation'.

Deftly she pounced and latched to the edge of the building, her claws digging into the stone work. Swinging her counterweight lower body and the tail she swung over the edge and lifted herself up, landing on her feet with the agility and strength of someone almost inhuman. Like a cat, for instance.

She stood before him, her smile turning into a frown at the sight of Batman's face. His eyes were lost, simply staring at her with an expressionless mouth. He didn't look cold and tough as he usually was, nor the sign of lust in his eyes each time she met him. Usually she would try to seduce him, sometimes escaping out of the bat cuffs or going to jail willingly, only gaining a tasty kiss, a touch of his cool armor and the feel of his muscles through the body suit. However she felt spurned when he showed obvious affection for Batwoman.

But she wasn't here which was the odd part.

"Batman, you seem a bit distracted today." Catwoman purred, adding a smile to gauge his reaction. Instead of annoyance in his cold face, he had nothing. Nothing but sadness, the taste of tear-salt upon her tongue.

Had Batman cried not long ago?

"What happened dear?" she asked. "Where's Robin? Batwoman? Batgirl, Nightwing?" He answered not.

"I almost love you like a mother now Batman. I have always stayed true. You came here not to stop me, I know this. A weary bat wouldn't think of hunting his prey down on a night he weeps."

Batman looked at her, his jaw moving slightly.

The Catwoman knew then something was horribly wrong. This was no more time to play with him. He was depressed, misery, standing before her.

"Just let me stand for a moment before you. I want to remember her." He whispered. Her heart sank at the sound of his voice. It was truly the most human moment she had ever seen in him.

"She's dead, isn't she?"

Jealousy was gone. Nothing stood between her and him. But the playfulness of toying with him and trying seduce him, frolicking as the kitten she was in the early days…no more since a few years ago. No more sense he told her he married, happily, the beautiful and agile Batwoman. No more this moment on.

He loved her. Selina then knew, at last, he loved the Batwoman more than his work, his mission, his goal, his revenge. For now he stood lost in sadness and needing, remembering.

He looked like a lost kitten needing his mother warmth.

She moved closer, letting their bodies almost touch. Her eyes filled with nurturing love, she did nothing that would insinuate a threat. She never tried to really hurt him. But she was wary about him, for she did not know how he would react when he was in mourning. The Batman is unpredictable.

"What do you want now?" She whispered.

"I don't know anymore. The need to fight and do what is right is still there. But I know dark times are ahead. The Joker's crushing me down. He took away something from me that I had made apart of me. But she's gone now; I have to deal with him as I did before."

Batman never talked so much.

"I know what you want." Selina only guessed as much that The Joker was back. No one could have done something like that without the guts of an insane psychopath thought deceased. "You want a woman with you. You need that side filled."

Batman blinked. "Yes. I want you to help me fight him. I need someone again…"

Catwoman's hands reached to his shoulders, holding him close to her. The woman felt Batman lower his defenses, trusting her and holding her fine form. The large gloved hands gripped her in a tight embrace, and if the situation wasn't so sad Catwoman would have purred at feeling Batman touch her willingly, romantically, for the first time.

But Selina was an experienced woman. A vigilante, a character in Gotham city for more than a decade. A woman thirsting for the lust of her life the mysterious Batman, a black widower bat.

He was asking for help.

"I can't replace her. I am a wild, frisky, I steal to help and live…I can only do one-night stands my love. I can ease your pain but…it is up to you to decide how that hole should be filled." She purred at his cowl where she supposed his ear was. "Will you fill it up? Or will you seal it with the thread of time and forgo it to the abyss?"

He had no response to this, except to savor the scent of his forbidden fruit, the feel of her suit and the warmth of her lips, so like Vikki's, kissing him.

It might take a few more days for him to return to his intelligent, aware self. Right now he could only think of applying some sort of makeshift bandage to his soul.

He picked up the willing woman, kissing back as he carried her down the wall to his waiting Batmobile, driving themselves to a secluded spot out in the country, where he would try to fill in the spot, while she would gain what she had always wanted.

**A/N: Well, Catwoman finally has Batman…probably for the first and last time. I'll keep them as forbidden fruit in a way. And don't worry, Batman WILL get better.**

**Shoys. **


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